NUS join funding talks for Scottish students

The Scottish Government’s distribution of a £95.5 million support package for students will be guided by input from the The National Union of Students Scotland.

The Union, an autonomous body within the National Union of Students, will work alongside the Scottish Government and Scottish Funding Council to look at how the spending of the 2012-13 allocation for student support can be fully maximised and properly directed.

The move was announced by First Minister Alex Salmond as heopened the last phase of the Langside College campus redevelopment in Glasgow, a project which came in at a staggering cost of £36 million.

The collaboration between the students and government comes as the Scottish government made a pledge to protect student funding from central government cuts. Finance Secretary John Swinney recently announced he would be injecting a further £40 million towards this years’ spend on colleges, bringing the total figure to £630 million.

The Scottish government is forging ahead with plans to increase amounts for student support even after its block grant of £3.3 billion was reduced over the spending review period.

Mr Salmond said:

"We have increased student support by 25 per cent since 2006-07 and student support budgets have increased every year under this administration and this is the progress we are continuing to protect.

"Even in this very difficult economic climate, we gave a commitment that student support would be maintained for 2012-13 at existing baseline levels, and our recent Budget for growth saw this commitment go even further, with an additional £11.4 million given over to help further education students this year.”

The improved student/government partnership was also hailed as a promising step in the right direction for student support by Robert Parker, President of NUS Scotland:

"The Scottish Government listened to tens of thousands of students through Our Future, Our Fight and protected a record level of spend on college bursaries. It's now vital that we build on this together to find the simplest and fairest way of getting this money into students’ pockets. We look forward to carrying this work forward, and ensuring that we are properly supporting those students who need it the most.”

What do you think of these plans? Are you hoping to land a graduate job in Scotland?